


Over Her Head

by smallcheese



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-24 15:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4925401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallcheese/pseuds/smallcheese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the third years graduate, all the girls still find ways to get together and have a good time, even as those still in school continue being school idols. However, Honoka has been acting awful strange lately and spending a lot more time with Tsubasa, leaving all her friends to wonder what's going on between them. As it turns out, not even Honoka really knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. At the Beach

Despite μ's having been officially broken up, the girls made a promise to go to the beach every year for a week to catch up on old times. Just because they weren't  school idols didn't mean they couldn't still be friends, or more than friends Nozomi would always add, looking back at Eli who would just roll her eyes in return. Either way, they had a whole schedule set up, not unlike when they went for the first time together, but this time it was all fun and no work even though secretly they all missed practicing and performing and had to stop themselves often from suggesting it.

 

"So how's Alisa and Yukiho doing?" Eli asked amidst a fierce ping pong battle Umi against Nico. Umi was winning, unsurprisingly.

 

"They've been great!" Rin exclaims, "Since we've mostly just split up into duet groups, they've been doing their own thing, and they're super good and super cute. Everyone loves them!" Then she went over to Nico, grabbing her shoulder, giving Umi the winning point, "But we still don't have a report. Why's that?"

 

"I was gonna win! Why'd you do that?" Nico shoved Rin off. This statement was entirely false. Nico had one point, and it was from yelling "Stop eating all the food, Honoka!" which got Umi to turn around to yell at the innocent victim, completely forgetting about the ball coming towards her.

 

"Yeah, Nico. Where's our place on the Nico Nico News?" Maki said in that half-bored, half-annoyed monotonous tone she tended to have around Nico.

 

"W-w-well it wouldn't be fair to review my old groupmates, like there'd be a bias, right?" She stumbled over her words, and guiltily did her Nico Nico Nii.

 

"You reviewed A-RISE since they went professional." Umi pointed out bluntly.

 

"B-but they weren't our friends or anything. I mean, they were like on a totally different level." Nico just kept digging herself into a deeper grave that not even Hanayo could pull her out of.

 

She actually made it worse by adding, "But we beat them. I don't really know how we beat them because they were like goddesses before we started all this."

 

"So that makes us super goddesses!" Rin jumped on top of Hanayo from behind, and they fell over. Everyone rushed to Hanayo as she called for help.

 

Kotori came out of the shower in the middle of all this and called for Honoka as it was her turn next. Everyone stopped what they were doing when they realised that they hadn't heard a peep from her in a while. Honoka, the designated loudmouth, being completely silent was unheard of. They all did a quick glance over of the entire room to figure out where she was before noticing she was sitting in a corner, typing away at her phone. Now, this was new. All of her friends were supposedly in this room. Umi jumped to conclusions, assuming it was a family emergency and asked if everything was okay.

 

Honoka looked up and jumped, now noticing that everyone was staring at her. "Uhh n-no!" She stumbled over her words, "Nothing's wrong."

 

"Then who are you texting?" Nozomi smirked. She could tell this was going to be good.

 

"Oh, just Tsubasa." Honoka replied sheepishly, putting her hand behind her head, "Sorry, didn't mean to ignore all you guys."

 

The rest of the girls all looked at each other in surprise, "Tsubasa?!" they all shouted in unison.

 

"What did she say?" Hanayo asked excitedly. Usually conversations with A-RISE involved idol events although as far as anyone else knew, they've been out of contact since μ's separated. Well, aside from Nico's report that half the girls were slightly annoyed by.

 

"Oh, not much. Just talking about being idols and school and stuff. Apparently, it's a ton different being professional. I'm super glad we didn't go that route." Honoka explained, not realising Hanayo's expectations.

 

"Did she say anything about their upcoming cd?" Nico asked, trying to be sly about getting the scoop for her blog, but failing, earning a jab to the ribs courtesy of Maki's elbow.

 

Honoka stared at Nico, completely wide-eyed, "They're releasing a cd?"

 

Nico practically fell over. The release was set for next month. How could Honoka not know? Looking for shared feelings, she turned to Hanayo who was also clearly in shock. Boy, did she do a good job in picking the new Idol Research Club president. She could always turn to good old Hanayo when she needed to gush about idols. She picked herself up again, still baffled, and stated, "Well, either way, Kotori's out of the shower, so it's your turn."

 

With Honoka out of the room, the girls took to discussing their friend's texting buddy.

 

"Why does she only talk to Honoka?" Nico whined.

 

Maki shot her down immediately. "Because you scare her."  Nico acted as if she had been shot through the heart dramatically, and fell to the floor. "Honestly, is that necessary? Does it really matter that much?"

 

Good old Hanayo stood up for her fallen comrade, "Of course it matters! They want to take Honoka for themselves." She could see it now, Honoka on that stage with her new friends, μ's left behind long ago. She sniffled at the thought. How could their dear friend do this to them?

 

Kotori, meanwhile, had already unlocked Honoka's phone and started going through the text messages. "Seems like they're just friends to me." She announced while Umi stood in shock next to her. That was totally an infringement of privacy. How could Kotori do that to Honoka? But sure enough, everyone else, aside from Maki, gathered behind Kotori to read everything, so Umi made her way to the other side of the room, completely appalled at everyone's behavior.

 

" _Just friends_?" Nozomi asked, a sly grin on her face, looking towards Eli.

 

Kotori looked back towards the two with a matching expression, but said nothing. Nico stared at the phone in shock, why couldn't she be friends with the ever-incredible A-RISE? They're the only group, aside from μ's, that she ever gave 5 stars. μ's wasn't official though. Hanayo was making a mental note that she was definitely writing a fanfic about this when she got home. Rin sat next to Umi after a bit because she found it boring. Honoka can have more friends than just us, she figured. She was just trying to see what the fuss was all about.

 

"What's the big deal, really?" Maki asked, "Honoka's a friendly person and makes friends easily. So what?"

 

"But it's A-RISE we're talking about!" Nico shouted in defense, not realising she was only defending herself by saying that at this point.

 

"So what?" Maki replied, "I mean, we beat them. It's not like they're better than us."

 

Nico cursed Maki under her breath. That girl didn't talk much, but when she did, she never regretted it, and Nico wanted nothing more than Maki to regret those words coming out of her mouth. She just scorned the best idol group out there. μ's no longer counted due to dissolution. But her mind was thrown back on track by Kotori scrolling further down the conversation on Honoka's phone.

 

There couldn't have been a better time for Honoka to reemerge from the shower. She came out to find everyone staring wide-eyed at her as Kotori dropped her phone. "What?" was all that she could muster, as she was completely in shock at the whole situation.

 

"It wasn't me!" Umi screamed from the other side of the room and motioned towards the other girls,"Kotori did it all, and those traitors went along with it." She even threw Rin under the bus by pushing her over and saying that she did it too.

 

Now everyone was just staring at Umi, and through the whole lunacy of it all, they all began to laugh, even Honoka. Who was she to keep her messages secret from her best friends anyway? It's not like they told any secrets through text anyway, those were all in person.

  
The rest of their week went without a hitch. Honoka messaged Tsubasa that she was on vacation and kept the texting to a minimum for the rest of the time, and she also changed her passcode, but Kotori figured it out anyway. She'd save that for another time.


	2. At the Cafe

Despite having a practice that was longer than usual, and everyone being half-dead from the exercise, Honoka was already back on her feet, grabbing her bag, running out the door, shouting a goodbye as she went.

Now, despite Honoka acting strangely recently, this was the strangest thing she’d done in a while. She had worked harder than anyone during practice, and she was already out the door. After a quick questioning of Yukiho which was returned with a quick shrug, Kotori decided to run after her. Everyone else had decided to just wait and ask her tomorrow, but Kotori was really curious and figured she could still run a bit more before she passed out, unlike Hanayo who was out for the count, but almost certainly had the same thing on her mind. It had to be Tsubasa.

“Honoka!” Kotori cried out to her friend, who was still a block ahead of her, despite the bird’s flying sprint. She was too out of breath to question her from afar, but luckily Honoka heard the call and slowed down, now running in place.

“What’s wrong?” Honoka asked her dear friend. She was in a bit of a rush, but if Kotori needed her, she felt it was okay to be a bit late.

Kotori caught up and stopped next to her, panting with her hands on her knees. “W-why’d you just run out like that?” she barely managed to get out in between breaths. 

“Huh?” Honoka now stopped, and put her hand behind her head, either blushing from the exercise or from embarrassment, Kotori couldn’t tell. “Tsubasa asked if I wanted to try out this new cafe in Akiba. I forgot how long it took to get there, so I’m running totally late.” She laughed nervously.

Kotori perked up a bit. She knew it, but it seemed Honoka did not. "Wait. You're going in that?" She motioned to the training clothes Honoka didn't even bother to change out of.

"Uh, yeah? Why not?" Honoka asked in reply. The cafe didn't seem that fancy. She knew Tsubasa always looked nice, but she seemed to wear her school uniform 24/7 when she was in high school. Honoka had not even seen her in casual wear until they got taiyaki that one day after the new school year started. 

Honoka was clearly clueless. This poor girl had asked her out on a date, and Honoka had absolutely no idea. Kotori was almost ready to ask for Tsubasa's number to make her aware of this, but Honoka interrupted, "Well, I really gotta go, or I'm gonna make her think I forgot. See ya!" and she was off. Kotori sighed and went back to the school to see who was still there. 

Apparently everyone stayed, and apparently Umi had ranted the entire time about privacy. She wasn't done as Kotori got a lecture all to herself before she was allowed to relay any information. 

Luckily, Maki saved the day with an unexpected, "I think she gets the point." Umi stopped, shocked that Maki was the one to speak. This gave Hanayo the chance to run up to Kotori to start asking for all the details.

Kotori laughed and complied to Hanayo's excited ramblings, “She’s apparently going to meet Tsubasa at some new cafe in Akiba.”

“Wait!” Rin unexpectedly jumped up, “You don’t mean that new cat cafe, right? I’ve walked past it a buncha times, but it wasn’t open yet. I think it might’ve opened today. Can we go, too? Please?”

Everyone just stared at her. Tsubasa didn’t really seem to be a cat person. Honoka owned a cat as a child, but that was forever ago. It seemed really out of character for the both of them. A cat cafe sure sounded like fun, though. 

“So, aren’t you going to tell us where it is?” Maki was sure talkative today. Nico pointed this out, earning a sharp, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

They all changed back into their school uniforms and made their way out to this supposed cat cafe. Rin rambled everything she knew about the place. Apparently, they were supposed to have good iced coffee and juice or something. Rin was obviously the most excited, but Alisa was definitely not hiding her own enthusiasm, holding onto Yukiho’s arm and saying that she had always wanted to go to one of these animal cafes that she’s heard so much about. 

The thing that surprised them most once they got there was that they could only see about 5 cats around. It was a huge cafe, so they seemed so sparse. Rin chased after them anyway. The rest sat quietly at a table and looked over the menu. Rin returned holding a white and black spotted cat who appeared to be very well fed. “Honoka’s over in the corner with Tsubasa. They’re hogging the kitten.” she said, obviously quite upset over the loss of kitten time. Alisa and Yukiho walk over to her to pet the cat, who was also getting the love from Hanayo and Kotori, sitting on either side of Rin.

“What?!” Umi nearly shouted, “They didn’t see you, did they?” It was weird enough that they were almost trying to stalk them, but the fact they really were here made it all worse. If only Rin hadn’t said anything.

“Course not.” Rin replied, puffing up her cheeks, “Who would notice anything else if they have a cute kitten to play with?” Everyone nodded in agreement, even Maki, and Umi just sighed and leaned back in her chair. These girls were driving her crazy.

The girls left as soon as they finished their drinks to be sure they were gone before Honoka and Tsubasa could notice them.

This action didn’t seem to matter much later because Honoka didn’t get back home until nearly ten o’clock. As soon as she heard her sister enter her room, Yukiho went in for the kill. “Honoka?”

The girl was face-first spread across her bed. A muffled ‘what’ emerged from the apparently still-alive being.

“Where’d you go after practice that you were out so late?” Yukiho asked, conveniently remembering that she wasn’t supposed to know about the cafe.

Honoka turned her head to properly talk to her sister, “Tsubasa invited me to try the new cat cafe in Akiba, so we were there for a few hours. We were able to play with the kitten who was so cute. Like, it would mew so softly, and it loved to be pet. Rin would’ve taken it home on the spot. Then Tsubasa offered to get me dinner because it was getting late. It was all-you-can-eat ramen. I kicked her ass, but I don’t think she realised it was a competition. I ate so much; I feel like I’m gonna die.”

Yukiho sighed, “Was the ramen your suggestion?” Honoka did this all the time. A sign says all-you-can-eat, and she has to be there and eat everything. She got kicked out of a place once because she was there all afternoon. That was the first place her picture was ever posted. Too bad it was captioned with “DO NOT SERVE”.

Honoka turned back to face the pillow and nodded. Yukiho rolled her eyes in return even though she knew her expression couldn’t be seen. With a quick goodnight, Yukiho returned to her room and quickly relayed all information through text.


	3. At the Park

Honoka had left the house early on a Saturday morning, which was highly unheard of, despite her confusion, Yukiho was more annoying that Honoka left with a “Oh, Yukiho, can you cover my shift, pretty please?” She had been hoping to go to Alisa’s house to work on costumes, but now that had to wait since their parents needed extra help on weekends due to the greater crowds. Having a school idol there always seemed to result in a boost in sales which Yukiho didn’t mind, but she was still surprised that a bunch of girls actually wanted her autograph and not just Honoka’s. Some wanted just hers. Maybe she’d invite Alisa over to help with the store, and they could brainstorm costumes in their free time.

Of course, Alisa’s first question was “Where’s Honoka today?” because their plans were made days ago, so they weren’t really expecting Yukiho to work at all. 

All Yukiho could do was shrug, “Beats me, but she left real early.”

“Maybe she met up with Umi and Kotori for breakfast!” Alisa suggested. Those third years were so cool. Maybe they were working out student council responsibilities or concert venues or something else idol-related.

“Then why’s she still out at 3?” Yukiho replied, “Whatever she’s doing is definitely an all-day thing at this point.”

The two girl brainstormed ideas of what Honoka could be doing during the entire shift and their free time, totally forgetting about the costumes they should have been putting together.

Honoka returned home after dark and went straight to her room. Not a peep came from her which was really odd and prompted Yukiho to investigate.

Yukiho entered Honokas’s room as her older sister began screaming into her pillow. She considered leaving at this point, but she had already been spotted by her red-faced sister. There was no other option but to ask “What happened?”

“I messed up.” Honoka stated bluntly, hugging her pillow close to her chest, curled up on her side, facing her sister, “I’m a terrible person.” Tears were streaming down her face. This was bad.

“What did you even do?” Yukiho asked, almost yelling due to shock at her sister’s condition.

“It’s kinda a long story.” she laughed nervously, but her younger sister prompted her to continue, “Okay, so I went to the amusement park with Tsubasa today, right?

We left early, and I brought some sweets mom made this morning for breakfast for us to share. Those new ones she made, so I brought some for Tsubasa, too, so she could try them. She really liked them. But then we went to the park and we had a good time. We ate lunch and dinner there. Just regular food stand stuff. I dragged her on all the roller coasters, and she kinda got sick because I took her on one right after eating. That was probably a bad idea, but she laughed it off.”

“Can you get to the point already? Or is the making her sick the point?” Yukiho interrupted. She cared about her sister, but she really didn’t care for the details. It was also getting late, and she wanted to go to bed.

“I was getting there.” Honoka puffed up her cheeks before continuing, “Well, anyway. Last thing Tsubasa wanted to do was to see the sunset from the ferris wheel. It was no problem. There was barely a line or anything, so we didn’t miss it. So, like, at the top of the ride, she kissed me, right on the lips. She totally surprised me! I backed up and went ‘What?’. Then she went ‘What?’, and it went downhill from there because she thought we’d been dating for the last six months, and I thought we were just doing friend things. I mean, I do like her kinda like that, but like I didn’t know! I made sure to tell her that I liked her, too, and stuff because I obviously hurt her feelings, and like I walked her home and stuff, and she said ‘Talk to you later!’, so I assume she’s not too mad or upset, but I feel terrible!”

Yukiho was now in complete shock. Her sister truly was an idiot. How could someone not notice something like that? “Wait, it’s been six months? Honoka, that’s half a year!”

“I know…” Honoka whimpered, “How can I ever make this up to her?”

“How should I know?” Yukiho shot back, “She’s your girlfriend apparently. Is there anything she’s ever mentioned wanting?”

Honoka thought really hard before replying, “Well, I think she’s mentioned wanting to do a duet, but I don’t know how that helps.”

Yukiho sighed, “Then write a duet, just for the two of you.”

“But I can’t write music.” Honoka whined.

“Figure it out yourself. I’m going to bed.” Yukiho left her sister to deal with her own problems.

Luckily, that was just the push Honoka needed to try to actually write something on her own. She put all her feelings for the lead singer of A-RISE into words. Anyone else would’ve thought it sounded embarrassing, but she was proud of her work. The next Monday, she cornered Maki and demanded that she teach her piano. Maki refused, but Honoka still sat down and tried to piece something of a melody together. She had no clue how to write the notes, but luckily, Maki had listened in on her and was able to write to down. The pianist handed Honoka the sheet music with a “That was really cheesy. I hope you’re not making us sing that.”. Honoka hugged Maki tight, saying that she was a great friend and a wonderful person and really saved her butt. Maki wasn’t sure what that was all about, but she just shrugged it off and wandered over to practice.

A week had gone by, and Honoka had still not heard anything from Tsubasa, but that was okay because she had this great idea of climbing up the fire escape at Tsubasa’s apartment building.

Since Honoka thanked Yukiho tremendously, the younger sister supposed that the duet thing worked. Apparently, they were going to see if they could perform it at a Love Live! PR event. Kotori had offered to make the costumes, not saying anything about them being based off of Hanayo’s fanart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading through this! Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
